Columbia area gardeners - free good topsoil in Ballentine

Just an FYI:
Get Free good topsoil.
They are putting in a new Wally World on highway 176 in Ballentine off of Broad River Rd. Enter on 76 side and take a right over to the dirt pile - they load it into your truck or trailer - Free! Good soil, too, faint smell of manure, a very few chunks of roots, but good soil. They also have a free Fill pile nearby if you need fill.

They are there from 7:30 am to 6 pm or so on weekdays, not sure about weekends or holidays. My neighbor got 22 truck loads and I am unloading one now that I got Wed.


Ballentine is just north of Irmo, not far from Lake Murray .
Here is the map link http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=34.125643,-81.217976&spn=0.010427,0.023754&z=16&msid=112937256036534201498.00045cc334769148d2707

Oh, the picture is of a wall-art wood sculpture that my husband and I designed and made - called Crow Children (my boy's faces are seen in the wings of the crows that are squabbling). We were inspired by the NW Native American art that we saw on a trip to Canada several years ago.

My parents mentioned this yesterday but I didn't realize anyone could go up there for dirt. Thanks for the post. I may ask them to pick me up a trailer load, that's less than a mile from them. (And no, they aren't happy about having a Wally World that close, can't blame em).

This message was edited Nov 28, 2008 9:20 PM

yep, my husband just drove the trailer up to the mound (you will see it as you go by, it is in the far east corner of the site) and they loaded it into his trailer just as nice as you please!
Free is great!

My guess is with the economy so bad they can't sell that topsoil like they normally would. I know that area where you parents live well and it is sad to see it developing. Recently I was in Spring Valley and was stunned by all the new stores - for miles. I actually got a bit lost on Clemson Road.

It's insane lately around here. We live in Lexington, but even that's grown tremendously, our neighborhood is one of many new developments in this area that one wasn't much more than fields. Traffic is absolutely horrible at times in downtown Lexington where Highway 1 and 6 come in. And they are still expanding out of Lexington towards Columbia via 378 with a new Target, Home Depot, Petsmart, and Best Buy in the last year.

Irmo has been under a heavy influx of folks since I was in High School at Dutch Fork. Neighborhoods popped up by the week it seemed, and once Harbison Blvd was going strong, no looking back - even after Columbia officially annexed it. And like you said about Clemson Rd. I get lost up there without the GPS - it's not the same place it used to be.

Columbia's also constantly under construction now - seems like USC owns the city, but it's all growing up in a big hurry.

On the dirt note, my folks said they'd get me a few scoops in the hydraulic trailer Monday. This is perfect since our soil is so bad here in L-town. I never thought I'd actually want to see clay in my soil again, LOL.

I wonder how many of those businesses will still be open next year if the economy does not turn around.

I am trying to focus on buying fewer things but from local stores- so instead of Lowes, I go to the locally owned True Value or Ace.
They all need out help and the competition from the BigBox stores is huge.

You all should go see Wall-E, the movie about the little robot -- it's so good and funny, good for all ages, but I think that the message might be lost on little ones- it is aimed directly at grownups. And while it is cute and funny, it is a very scary indictment on our Big Box, Consume-All world.

Small businesses definitely need all the help they can get. This is a hard economy for the big guys so I can only imagine what the mom and pop type places are dealing with.

With all the craziness yesterday though, you'd almost think the economy was fine. People do some crazy stuff on black Friday. So sad about that guy at Wal-mart and the Toys-R-Us incident.

I do not even go above Piney Grove Rd at all between now and Christmas unless I can be up and out by 10 am. The thieves are rampant up there and it is just plain crazy.

Be aware, if you go to a store and buy something recognizable (big box labeled computer, for example), and you need to go to another store in the same area, be sure to act like you are heading home - drive to the freeway and away then come back if you need to do more shopping. Or better yet, go home and drop it off.
The thieves sit outside the stores (especially the techno stores like Best Buy, Circ. City, etc) and watch. When they see you load that big screen TV in the van, even if you cover it up, they will follow you. If you go to another nearby lot, they wait and as soon as you are in the door of the other store they smash and grab.
This happened last year to my best friend - she went to Best Buy at Harbison, then loaded the Xbox and new computer in the SUV, covered them with blankets and that little pull-over screen thingy that hides the cargo and drove over to WalMart - Locked it up, she was in and out in less than 15 minutes and her car was broken into and everything (including all the change in her console and her kid's used gameboy) were gone. Her alarm was screaming and the police were nowhere to be seen. Video from parking lot cameras showed blurry images of 2 dudes and a dudette and a panel van that looks like all the others in the world (and was probably stolen).
She said that the police had 14 reports in that one weekend in the Harbison area. In broad daylight.

Be careful out there!

And trhe Walmart incident was just waiting to happen, it was just a matter of time.

Wow, I hadn't heard of the problems on Harbison, but it doesn't surprise me. Things feel slightly less crazy here in Lexington, but I still don't like going out. I do all my shopping online now - much easier.